This invention relates to a vehicle roof and more particularly to a rail construction for mounting and guiding the sliding roof of a vehicle.
There have been provided sliding roofs which may be moved in the longitudinal direction of vehicle along guide rails secured to the stationary part of the vehicle roof so as to close or open an opening provided on the stationary roof.
The guide rails generally include a front rail extending in the transverse direction of the vehicle, two parallel lateral rails extending in the longitudinal direction thereof and disposed on opposite sides of the opening. Each of these rails is provided with two parallel grooves in which two toothed cables are axially movable. Two shoe members connected to the sliding roof at lateral sides thereof are also movably mounted in the lateral rails to engage the toothed cables. The axial displacement of the toothed cables in opposite directions will cause the movement of the sliding roof through the shoe members.
One of the problems in assembling the sliding roof, together with the guide rails, to the stationary roof of vehicles is in the construction of the guide rails. That is, it is a conventional practice to fix the front rail and two lateral guide rails independently of each other to the inner panel of the vehicle roof. Therefore, skillful work in assembling is necessary and the vehicle body could be inadvertently injured due to the rails during such complicated assembling work. In addition, the mounting of the toothed cables onto the rails takes a lot of time since the worker has to make such mounting within the vehicle room and above his head.